Whatever you do be wary of any personality disorder diagnosis including borderline. The military tries to label people with these very often. Google military misdiagnosis borderline personality disorder to see what I'm talking about and why.

Otherwise you're just going to have to keep coming back and making sure that they are continuously getting that you have bipolar symptoms. It really might take two or three psychiatrist for them to figure it out.

I was active duty and almost at 14 years and started showing symptoms during about year 12. Prior to that I was diagnosed with major depressive disorder and generalized anxiety but I was lucky enough to finally get a doctor that saw I was starting to present manic periods.

As far as what happens after a bipolar diagnosis in the military, I was told that I was going to get Med boarded which freaked me out because I didn't know what else to do with my life and now I was facing not having anything. In my case I got very lucky and I was given medical retirement and 100% disability but I also had a doctor who was very good at writing the med board packages. It's just like yearly evaluations a lot of the time it comes down to how well the person is writing it for you. They really have to drive home how strong your symptoms are and how much they are screwing up your ability to function.

My brother was straight discharged at 2 years being labeled with a personality disorder and wasn't getting anything or any help. He was able to start going to the VA and the psychiatrist there diagnosed him as having been bipolar the WHOLE time so he had to go through the pain in the butt process of gathering all that paperwork from when he was in active duty to try to make a case to the VA for disability after the fact. He ended up receiving over 70% and then later on because he hadn't been able to get employment was able to get 100%.

Expect to likely end up being separated if you get a bipolar diagnosis but the important thing is to try to get that done before you get out as far as a med board and submitting paperwork to the VA because it will be a lot easier while you are in. If you end up getting a med board make sure that you also claim every single thing that you had healthwise while you were in. If you got tinnitus now tell them, if you had back problems at that etc.